. Wherever human reason has had its
normal and healthful development, it has spontaneously and necessarily
led the human mind to the recognition of a God. The Athenians were no
exception to this general law. They believed in the existence of one
supreme and eternal Mind, invisible, incomprehensible, infeffable--"the
unknown God."

2. The Athenians had also that consciousness of dependence upon God
which is the foundation of all the primary religious emotions.

When the apostle affirmed that "in God we live, and move, and have our
being," he uttered the sentiments of many, if not all, of his hearers,
and in support of that affirmation he could quote the words of their own
poets, for we are also his offspring; [113] and, as his offspring, we
have a derived and a dependent being. Indeed, this consciousness of
dependence is analogous to the feeling which is awakened in the heart of
a child when its parent is first manifested to its opening mind as the
giver of those things which it immediately needs, as its continual
protector, and as the preserver of its life. The moment a man becomes
conscious of his own personality, that moment he becomes conscious of
some relation to another personality, to which he is subject, and on
which he depends.[114]

[Footnote 113:

"Jove's presence fills all space, upholds this ball;
All need his aid; his power sustains us all,
_For we his offspring are_."
Aratus, "The Phaenomena," book v. p. 5.

Aratus was a poet of Cilicia, Paul's native province. He flourished B.C.
277.

"Great and divine Father, whose names are many,
But who art one and the same unchangeable, almighty power;
O thou supreme Author of nature!
That governest by a single unerring law!
Hail King!
For thou art able, to enforce obedience from all frail mortals,
_Because we are all thine offspring,_
The image and the echo only of thy eternal voice."
Cleanthes, "Hymn to Jupiter."

Cleanthes was the pupil of Zeno, and his successor as chief of the Stoic
philosophers.]

[Footnote 114: "As soon as a man becomes conscious of himself, as soon
as he perceives himself as distinct from other persons and things, he at
the same moment becomes conscious of a higher self, a higher power,
without which he feels that neither he nor any thing else would hav